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Marriage and Introduction Cohabitation

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Marriage and Introduction Cohabitation
1. Introduction

Cohabitation, in the basic meaning, is a physical and emotional relationship between two opposite-sex inmates involves living together without any legal sanction. Many people believe that cohabitation is definitely popular to the youngsters only; however, this can happen in the older ones as well. Cohabitation appeared a long time ago and quickly became common in the USA and other Western countries. Over the last two decades, a dramatic increase in the number of cohabiting couples has been witnessed. As Bumpass and Lu reported, “the proportion of all first unions (including both marriages and cohabitations) that begin as cohabitations rose from 46% for unions formed between 1980 and 1984 to almost 60% for those formed between 1990 and 1994”, (cited in Smock 2000). Because cohabitation has the possibility of existing for a long period of time, it is not too surprising to know that up to 35% of couples who never marry have their own children like a “real family” (Smoke 2000).

The popularity of cohabitation is affecting many countries in a lot of regions, and Asia is not an exception. The young Asian people, especially college students, are influenced much by Western culture, which lead to the shift of attitude towards a lot of aspects of life involving cohabitation: they tend to be more acceptable with living without marriage. However, it still raises an argument among people of concerning that whether cohabitation should be permitted in Asia. This paper analyzes the cohabitation in Asian college students and discusses its negative effects on students.

2. Discussion of findings

2.1. Characteristics of Asian college students who cohabit

In many Asian countries, it is not difficult for the public to realize the cohabiting students no matter how hard they try to conceal. These students usually have typical characteristics showing that they are living with another boy or girl with no legal permission, which are identified as being older,



References: Ambert, A. M. 2005, ‘Cohabitation and Marriage: How are they related’, [online]. Available at URL: http://www.vifamily.ca/library/cft/cohabitation.html#Why (Accessed 26 January 2010). Knox, D., Zusman, M.E., Snell, S. & Cooper, C. 1999, ‘Characteristics of college students who cohabit’, College student Journal, viewed 22 January 2010, Schwartz, M.A. & Scott, B.M. 1994, Marriage & Families: diversity and change, Prentice Hall, the USA. Sheri, S. & Stritof, S. , n.d., ‘Cohabitation Facts and Statistics’, [online]. Available at : URL:http://marriage.about.com/od/cohabitation/qt/cohabfacts.htm (Accessed 26 January 2010). Smoke, P. J. 2000, ‘Cohabitation in The United States: An Appraisal of Research Themes, Findings, and Implications, Annual Review of Sociology’, [online]. Available at URL:http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.1?prevSearch=fulltextfield%3A%28Cohabitation%29&cookieSet=1&journalCode=soc (Accessed 25 January 2010). Tien Dung 2007, ‘“Sống thử”, phim sex tấn công học đường’, [online]. Available at URL:http://www.vnexpress.net/GL/Xa-hoi/Nhip-dieu-tre/2007/04/3B9F53C8/ (Accessed 26 January 2010) Turner, J.S. & Helms, D.B. 1989, Contemporary Adulthood, 4th edn, Susan Driscoll, the USA.

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